JediTricks
10-03-2009, 01:39 PM
Jabba's dais is confirmed to be in the works in Hasbro's answers to SSG questions for October 2nd, 2009. Thanks again to Hasbro for the answers, to all the folks who sent in questions and especially those who voted on them.
Hasbro Q&A for the week of October 2nd
SSG: The TSC AT-AT Driver was considered by many to be an excellent figure with the only real minus being the swivel elbow joints. The new one looks great, but why did you feel the need do a complete resculpt when simply changing the arms to accommodate ball hinge elbows would have sufficed? You've explained to us in the past that the more tooling required for a figure, the less budget resources can be applied to other figures in the wave, so some collectors are curious why all that new tooling went to the AT-AT Driver instead of something like a new Bespin Han or Hoth Leia. What's the decision-making process there that results in an all-new AT-AT Driver?
Hasbro: Doing this figure did not knock a core character upgrade out of the mix, as we already had our core characters for the year lined up. We wanted to do a new updated troop-builder for this wave, and of the Hoth Imperials, it seemed like a solid one to do since the arms of the previous did need an upgrade. We could have probably just done arms, but the design team proceeded with a new sculpt.
SSG: In the last round, we asked a question about the possibilities of a new Jabba's dais, but the answer we received was instead about Jabba himself. While that was good news for fans to hear and we are quite hopeful on the Hutt gangster front, we're also curious about his dais. Our hypothetical question was asking what pricepoint and format might it be released in for all that new tooling, and would the set include the existing railing and hookah or just assume that enough collectors have the piece and leave it out? Would it have wheels? Would you go back and use the Kenner vintage throne tooling? And what are the odds of seeing the hypothetical Jabba's Dais we're discussing here?
Hasbro: Sorry to have you spend a second question to follow-up; we thought that our answer suggested it would be *all* new, dais and everything. No idea on price point or format, other than this would not fit anything in the mainline so it points toward the exclusive lineup. The odds of actually seeing it depend on many factors: the ability to cost this beast out with the tooling it would entail; a willing retail partner; a successful sell-through of this year's exclusive lineup to merit confidence that such an item would find a receptive audience. We can confirm that we are working on a new set, but the above factors are still not nailed down yet so it's not a guarantee that you will see him in 2010.
SSG: It's been a couple years since fans got to vote for Greatest Hits-style figures. There are plenty of other figures that fans want to see re-released without waiting for them to be remade, but don't fit into the kid-friendly Saga Legends line's focus. Any chance of letting us do another Fans Choice Greatest Hits vote? It's all the fun and excitement of the fans getting to choose figures for the line without the expense of you having to tool up a bunch of new figures.
Hasbro: Right now, the focus is on the new Toy Fare fans' choice poll to see which as-yet-unmade characters fans want to see in figure form. After that, it seems like a solid idea to run another poll for which figures to bring back, either in Saga Legends or in another format. We'll look to start that next Spring. Stay tuned!
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And our questions at CollectionStation.com (http://www.collectionstation.com/groups/view/Star-Wars/Official-Hasbro-Star-Wars-Q-A-103_60):
Way back in the day, Hasbro planned a Naboo Pilot figure with a removable cloth coat, it was to come with a handheld LCD game, but the set was canceled. Now that we're at the 10th anniversary of Episode I, it seems like Star Wars collections are lacking only 1 type of pilot from all the films, the brave Naboo Fighter pilots. Any consideration for doing a new Naboo Pilot with removable coat, perhaps also using that body for an update to Ric Olie who taught Anakin about star piloting? These characters seem to have been forgotten with the passage of time, but had important roles to play in the film.
The upcoming Nikto Gunner you're releasing is a very nifty figure, but is not actually the Nikto Gunner. The Nikto figure we're getting is Nysad, he's the one who pops out of the hatch and shoots 2 shots at Luke only to have them deflected back and kill him. The cannon he comes with was actually used by the other Nikto on the Sail Barge deck, Vizam, who has a different armor design and is basically what we got in the POTF2 Skiff Guards Cinema Scene. How did the mixing of Vizam's accessory and role get merged into the upcoming Nysad figure, and why isn't the character's name used for the figure? Now that we have the proper cannon and a modern Nikto head, are we going to see them reused into the actual Nikto Gunner, Vizam, or are we stuck with the decade-old POTF2 version for that?
The upcoming Hrchek Kal Fas figure raises a few questions. First, what's up with his eyes? On the prototype images including the one in the slideshow at Comic-Con, they were black as they are in the film and on the card art, but the actual figure has bizarre painted orange eyes with pupils, which looks odd. It seems like it's trying to represent the backs of the glassy clear eyes as they appeared when they caught a certain light, but the end result seems just weirdly off. What will the final production paint be on that? Also, are there plans to release Sai'torr Kal Fas at some point in the future as well, or would collectors be wise to pick up two of Hrchek, since their costumes are virtually identical?
Hasbro Q&A for the week of October 2nd
SSG: The TSC AT-AT Driver was considered by many to be an excellent figure with the only real minus being the swivel elbow joints. The new one looks great, but why did you feel the need do a complete resculpt when simply changing the arms to accommodate ball hinge elbows would have sufficed? You've explained to us in the past that the more tooling required for a figure, the less budget resources can be applied to other figures in the wave, so some collectors are curious why all that new tooling went to the AT-AT Driver instead of something like a new Bespin Han or Hoth Leia. What's the decision-making process there that results in an all-new AT-AT Driver?
Hasbro: Doing this figure did not knock a core character upgrade out of the mix, as we already had our core characters for the year lined up. We wanted to do a new updated troop-builder for this wave, and of the Hoth Imperials, it seemed like a solid one to do since the arms of the previous did need an upgrade. We could have probably just done arms, but the design team proceeded with a new sculpt.
SSG: In the last round, we asked a question about the possibilities of a new Jabba's dais, but the answer we received was instead about Jabba himself. While that was good news for fans to hear and we are quite hopeful on the Hutt gangster front, we're also curious about his dais. Our hypothetical question was asking what pricepoint and format might it be released in for all that new tooling, and would the set include the existing railing and hookah or just assume that enough collectors have the piece and leave it out? Would it have wheels? Would you go back and use the Kenner vintage throne tooling? And what are the odds of seeing the hypothetical Jabba's Dais we're discussing here?
Hasbro: Sorry to have you spend a second question to follow-up; we thought that our answer suggested it would be *all* new, dais and everything. No idea on price point or format, other than this would not fit anything in the mainline so it points toward the exclusive lineup. The odds of actually seeing it depend on many factors: the ability to cost this beast out with the tooling it would entail; a willing retail partner; a successful sell-through of this year's exclusive lineup to merit confidence that such an item would find a receptive audience. We can confirm that we are working on a new set, but the above factors are still not nailed down yet so it's not a guarantee that you will see him in 2010.
SSG: It's been a couple years since fans got to vote for Greatest Hits-style figures. There are plenty of other figures that fans want to see re-released without waiting for them to be remade, but don't fit into the kid-friendly Saga Legends line's focus. Any chance of letting us do another Fans Choice Greatest Hits vote? It's all the fun and excitement of the fans getting to choose figures for the line without the expense of you having to tool up a bunch of new figures.
Hasbro: Right now, the focus is on the new Toy Fare fans' choice poll to see which as-yet-unmade characters fans want to see in figure form. After that, it seems like a solid idea to run another poll for which figures to bring back, either in Saga Legends or in another format. We'll look to start that next Spring. Stay tuned!
- -
And our questions at CollectionStation.com (http://www.collectionstation.com/groups/view/Star-Wars/Official-Hasbro-Star-Wars-Q-A-103_60):
Way back in the day, Hasbro planned a Naboo Pilot figure with a removable cloth coat, it was to come with a handheld LCD game, but the set was canceled. Now that we're at the 10th anniversary of Episode I, it seems like Star Wars collections are lacking only 1 type of pilot from all the films, the brave Naboo Fighter pilots. Any consideration for doing a new Naboo Pilot with removable coat, perhaps also using that body for an update to Ric Olie who taught Anakin about star piloting? These characters seem to have been forgotten with the passage of time, but had important roles to play in the film.
The upcoming Nikto Gunner you're releasing is a very nifty figure, but is not actually the Nikto Gunner. The Nikto figure we're getting is Nysad, he's the one who pops out of the hatch and shoots 2 shots at Luke only to have them deflected back and kill him. The cannon he comes with was actually used by the other Nikto on the Sail Barge deck, Vizam, who has a different armor design and is basically what we got in the POTF2 Skiff Guards Cinema Scene. How did the mixing of Vizam's accessory and role get merged into the upcoming Nysad figure, and why isn't the character's name used for the figure? Now that we have the proper cannon and a modern Nikto head, are we going to see them reused into the actual Nikto Gunner, Vizam, or are we stuck with the decade-old POTF2 version for that?
The upcoming Hrchek Kal Fas figure raises a few questions. First, what's up with his eyes? On the prototype images including the one in the slideshow at Comic-Con, they were black as they are in the film and on the card art, but the actual figure has bizarre painted orange eyes with pupils, which looks odd. It seems like it's trying to represent the backs of the glassy clear eyes as they appeared when they caught a certain light, but the end result seems just weirdly off. What will the final production paint be on that? Also, are there plans to release Sai'torr Kal Fas at some point in the future as well, or would collectors be wise to pick up two of Hrchek, since their costumes are virtually identical?